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King Robert of Sicily Down fell his body, senseless, and his soul animating the corpse, the dead Brahmin sat up and opened his eyes. Instantly the crafty hunchback repeated the incantation, and took possession of the carcass of his majesty, mounted the king's horse, and rode off to Liavati, where he was received by the courtiers, the servants, the ministers, and the queen as if he were the true Mukunda, whilst the real monarch, in the shape of a begging Brahmin, roved the forests and the villages, cursing his folly, half starved on the scanty charity of the faithful.

"Suspicions that all was not right forced their way into the queen's mind, and she mentioned her doubts to the minister.

'Far flies rumour with three pairs of ears,'

said he, addressing the false king, who shrugged his shoulders, and laughed. Again the minister tried him with—

'The beggar may rise to royal degree,'

and received a peremptory order to be silent as he valued his head.

He is not the king,' said the minister to the queen. 'We must find the true Mukunda, wherever he may be.'

"In order to effect this, to every one whom the vizier addressed he uttered the two half-verses—

'Far flies rumour with three pairs of ears,'

and

'The beggar may rise to royal degree,' 241